Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sin_n	law_n	moral_a	transgression_n	3,346	5	11.1621	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A08318	The nevv Gospel, not the true Gospel. Or, A discovery of the life and death, doctrin, and doings of Mr. Iohn Traske, and the effects of all, in his followers Wherein a mysterie of iniquity is briefly disclosed, a seducer unmasked, and all warned to beware of imposters. As also a confutation of the uncomfortable error, of Mr. Boye, concerning the plague, out of Psal. 91. By Edvv. Norice.	Norris, Edward, 1584-1659.	1638 (1638)	STC 18645; ESTC S113242	39,058	60

into Angells of light and ministers of righteousnesse to the end that they may the better vent and set abroach another doctrine resembling the true and another Gospell very like but not the same to that we have received thereby to beguile and ensnare the simple which kind of deceitfull workers as the holy Apostle discryed in his time and complained of them 2 Cor. 11.13 14. so have we the like cause in ours wherein arise some Impostors and Seducers of like condition Among which this Mr. Iohn Traske may stand for a principall who in this time of light hath taken upon him to dictate and send abroad his Gospell grounds as he calls them into all parts pretending that they containe in them a more perfect discovery of the Gospell of Christ than ever was made before and a more glorious way of walking by than any have found till he discried it Wherein neverthelesse are couched and hidden many very pernitious errors contrary to the truth of the Gospell of Christ that in points fundamentall and of the highest consequence * An advertisement concerning Traskisme A short discovery whereof being formerly published as an Appendix to another work and the same stiled as it deserved a new Gospell hee hath since laboured to vindicate his doctrin from that * In his late printed book reproach calling it the true Gospell and no new Gospell to which end hee hath shuffled up the Scriptures with false senses put many faire colours upon some of the points and utterly falsifyed the rest with his explanations thereby to deceive the simple and credulous for the unmasking of which * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 2 Cor. 11.13 Iugler with his juglings being in matters of so high a nature I have here discovered the truth of his Assertions as hee hath maintained them not alone by writing but by word of mouth in solemne disputation and conference had about the same and that not his Gospell grounds alone but in other formes delivered under his own hand that the very quintessence of his errors may be knowne But before I come to the particulars I think it not unfit to lay before the eyes of the Reader these deceits of his in generall the better to discerne and judge of his carriage in the particulars 1. Whereas he pretendeth and solemnly protesteth in the name of the Highest that he maintaineth none other Doctrin This is at large in a Letter than the same that is taught by all our Divines preached in Pulpits and defended by writings c. yet he hath not nor doth alleadge in any place any one Author for the confirmation of what he holds but more than so disclaimes all our teaching as Iewish our Ministers as Legalists and Messengers of Moses our congregations as but pretended Christian Assemblies sending out his dictates under the name of Gospell grounds his followers also professing that they never heard the Gospell before for if the former be true how can the later stand 2. That he all along casteth upon me the reproach of a Slanderer with other foule invectives for charging him with such opinions and yet acknowledgeth many of them in particular to be glorious truths which he owneth and defendeth as if I had slandered him with a matter of truth and done him wrong in publishing his glorious mysteries so eager and virulent was his spirit 3. That under the pretence of explaining the Assertions he changeth the very sense of them as they were defended by himselfe and runnes along with a false sense never intended only to cast mists before the eyes of the Reader that his errors may not be perceived like unto a certaine fish Plutarchs moralls whose property it is to staine the water with a black stuffe like inke to blind the eyes of the Fishers His explanations therefore I take properly to be derived ex Plano from a deceiver or jugler that can cast mists and in stead of them will substitute and annexe the true and genuine explication of the Assertions as he indeed held and hath elsewhere defended them insisting specially upon the discovery of them the confutation following of it selfe the errors being so foule To come then to a scanning of the particulars and herein to follow not his confused order done of purpose to disturb the Reader but the same they were first delivered in the Advertisment they are these following 1. ASSERTION The Law is a Rule of the flesh and to walk after the Law is to walk after the flesh Rom. 8.12 Explication HIs meaning is that the very morall Law of God is a carnall rule to live by according to his common invectives against the same in stiling it an earthly and a carnall commandment as also his application of those words of the Apostle to the morall Law that walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Rom. 8.1 that is in his construction not after the Law but after the Gospell wherein he calls the Law a rule of the flesh and perverteth the Scripture to maintaine it for if that be so to be understood then by the Law of God Rom. 7.25 in the former verse on which this depends must be meant the Gospell and by the law of sinne the morall Law so that the law of the members the law of sinne and the morall Law are all one in his sense and then must the very Law it selfe be sinnefull and a Commander of unrighteous things The height of Antinomisme an enemy to holinesse an opposite to the work of the spirit and utterly repugnant to the Gospell even as it is a rule of obedience then must it also bee disclaimed abandoned and renounced as evill and impure with all the contents of it and not in any sense to be taught in the Church than which what can be more blasphemously and wickedly spoken or how can the Turkish Alcoran it selfe bee harder censured which is the more unexcusable in this Seducer in that the holy Apostle was so carefull in those very places to prevent such a construction of his words first demanding whether the Law where sin which he answereth with detestation Rom. 7.7.12.12.14.22 Chap. 8. 7. God forbid then plainly affirming the Law to be holy and just and good a spirituall doctrine wherein he delighted as a spirituall man whereunto the carnall mind could not be subject because it is carnall casting all the blame not on the Law but on the flesh for any hurt or evill we have by it as not caused by the Law but occasioned by our owne corruption besides many other places to that purpose Now in the explanation I referre my selfe to his book for what I cite all along the Seducer would declare his meaning to be against those only that sought life and righteousnesse by the works of the Law that to such it is a rule of the flesh pretending that he was opposed by some of that way and thereupon layed downe his

directions against it but why doth hee not name who they were that did so or why doth he not handle the point as other godly men have done but thus break out against the Law it selfe calling it a rule of the flesh to make it vile but all this is nothing else than meere deceit and collusion pretending a cause that never was in any of them at whom he aimeth no not to a thought upon which false supposition also it is that he reproacheth all other Ministers that make any use of the Law for Legalists and Iustitiaries as if they taught righteousnesse by works because they make the Law a rule of obedience which is common and I doubt wilfull calumny of all his followers who know well enough how farre they are from such doctrines and drifts whom they disclaime and decline 2. ASSERTION The Law is not to be preached to beleevers by Gospell Ministers Explication HIs meaning is that the Law is not to be preached at all in the Church of God neither to beleevers nor unbeleevers either for repentance or obedience and that his meaning is so his words declare which are these And why may it not be affirmed In his confirmation that seeing there is no Commission to preach the Law at all now under the Gospell and seeing the Gospell containes the whole mind and will of God and that the Apostles did never preach the Law at all but as subordinate to the Gospell and doth enjoyne Timothy to charge some that they teach no other Doctrine but the faith A clause added against the rest c. why may we not say that the Gospell only is to bee preached to all aswell as to beleevers except any can shew a larger Commission than Christ himselfe c. pag. 50. These words are plaine enough There is no Commission to preach the Law at all the Gospell is only to bee preached to all Generall and peremptory assertions without exception yet neverthelesse to hide his flat Antinomisme in his explanation he tells us that the Law as law is not to be preached to beleevers and afterwards demands Who ever denyed the Lawes use or excellency to discover sinne convict such as the Gospell shines not unto to be a ground for all humane Lawes the very rule of love a meanes to shew the greatnesse of sinne of very plentifull use to beleevers c. One would think that the same man could not own both these assertions at once and set them down both in the same Chapter What hath the Law so many excellentuses to beleevers and unbeleevers and yet is there no Commission at all to preach it doth it containe so many excellent truths and of that necessity in the Church and yet is it no part of the mind and will of God to bee revealed unto men Doctor Taylor his Regula vitae is very usefull for all these points how to make all this accord in any good construction I acknowledge to be past my skill or I suppose any mans else for take it according to his first words the Law as Law is not to bee preached but as subordinate to the Gospell yet then it must be preached howsoever and is within the Commission of a Gospell Minister which before he denyed either the Seducer wanted wit to see his own contradictions or else he was very wicked to speak against the truth and his own conscience together the later is most to be suspected but then they are men to be admired that will see neither of them 3. ASSERTION If repentance and faith bee wrought only by the Gospell then what doth the Law work in any mans conversion to God or conformity to Christ Explication THis demand hee acknowledgeth to be truly inferr'd by him upon the premisses of one of his then disciples according to the doctrin he had first taught him and yet lest he should lose his habit of rayling hee keeps the word * This is his Keax Slanderer on foot still although it be the truth under his own hand Concerning which point I will say no more but if the Law serve to discover sinne and to convince men as before he hath acknowledged and that this discovery and convincing bee necessary to bring men to repentance seeing they cannot repent of what they know not how then is the Law wholly excluded from having any hand in the same at all was it not that and matter of that kind which S. Peter used to convince the Iewes withall Acts 2.37 and is it not that which discovers unto all men their own unrighteousnesse and misery that they may seek unto Christ for righteousnesse and mercy Rom. 3.19 doth not that regulate our love and so our conformity to Christ and his requirings John 13.34 but these matters of repentance humiliation for sin godly sorrow sanctification of spirit feare of God care of obedience and such like are all in too low a sphere for his sublimity and not in the compasse of his mounted speculations only faith and joy are the matters he is conversant in the other serve for poore Legalists to feed upon that know no better but it followes 4. ASSERTION The law did once discover sin it doth so no more nor yet for direction love herein transcends the law as far as life doth death Explication HIs meaning is that now in time of the Gospell the Law doth neither serve to discover sin nor yet to be a rule of obedience for it was alleadged by him in way of Answer to that of the Apostle By the law is the knowledge of finne Rom. 3.20 and Chap. 7. 7. to which he replyed that though it did so heretofore yet it doth not so now those times and that use of the Law are past and gone and so out of date the Gospell now doth all without the Law which is his spirituall sense and the mystery of his way but to colour the matter being foule in appearance hee tells us in his explanation that the Sacrifice of Christ doth better set forth the odiousnesse of sinne than the terrors of the Law which is no part of the point what doth most set out the odiousnesse of sinne Ignoratio ele nchis but what doth discover the sinnes themselves in their kinds and severall branches which must needs be the Law according to the Apostles testimony the very definition of sin being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the transgression of the Law 1. John 3.4 then is it to be preached with the Gospell for repentance Concerning the other branch about the directing use of the Law to justifie his deny all he gives us to understand as if none knew it before that the inward principle from which all true obedience proceeds is love which inward grace doth farre transcend the letter without as if that were the question from what inward principle true obedience proceeded and not rather by what Rule the same is regulated and ordered which is the Law of God discovering good and

his rude and unseemly demeanour towards his then Soveraigne Lord King James Vsing the terms of Thou and Thee 32 times in one Letter to him his affronting of all men with his private opinions his lofty and arrogant speeches of himselfe his scornfull detractions in this book yea the summa totalis of the man and the matter testifie and declare for had there beene true humility these things had never beene so Of his Rule of faith COncerning his Rule of faith Which hee hath added by way of supplement to the end of his book it shewes only that he was sick of pride would have vented some extraordinary matter if he had knowne what VVherein are some very suspitious passages for after a long and tedious preamble promising wonders hee hath at last produced an ordinary and well known truth That Christ Iesus is the King Priest and Prophet of his Church But how to apply this understandingly to all points of faith whatsoever as he pretends to give satisfaction doth not there appeare neither will it stand with his owne enormous Divinitie before handled Further I need not meddle with it But for conclusion I would gladly admonish if they would be admonished all the followers and admirers of this man before they follow him any further to consider striously with themselves these few things upon the premises First the evill condition and quality of the man himselfe discovered in divers enormities of the fou lest nature as lying in the highest degree rayling scoffing lasciviousnesse audatious perverting of Scripture levity and unconstancie turning from one opinion to another as the yeare turned about but never setling in the truth All which are most unbeseeming a man that took upon him to be the only Patron of the truth and finder out of the mystery of the Gospel the Lord never * They are vessels of choise Acts 9.15 using such instruments for such purposes Secondly the dangerous nature of the opinions themselves as First concerning the use of the moral Law of God that the same is utterly abrogated and made void by the comming in of the Gospell Secondly that there is no regeneration or sanctification by the spirit of God nor any habits of Grace at all Thirdly that there is no place for repentance humiliation or sorrow for sinne in a beleever but all joy Fourthly that there is no triall of faith or grace by any signes or fruits but only a resting upon a bare perswasion Fifthly that men must be comforted in their faith though they have neither change of life uprightnesse of heart nor conscience of obedience to the Commandements of God all which with their dependants are very dangerous points to follow Thirdly his manner of maintaining and defending his Assertions which is with evident forcing of the Scriptures and manifest contradictions with himselfe instance in that about growth in grace Assertion the 20th but chiefly in that of the Law standing in this manner The Law is a rule of the flesh The Law is not to be preached to beleevers by Gospell Ministers The Law did once discover sinne it doth so no more There is no commission at all to preach the Law now under the Gospell The Law hath nothing at all to doe with beleevers The Law is the very rule of love The Law is of plentifull use to true beleevers The Law discovers the greatnesse of sinne The Law is of use to the lawlesse and unholy The Apostles preached the Law as subordinate to the Gospell Beleevers have most of all to doe with the Law Which how to reconcile is past my skill or I suppose his own but that hee would very like a Proteus as occasion was offered and turne in and out for advantage Lastly that hee will admit no difference betweene pressing of duties as fruits of faith and preaching of justification by works whereupon he censures all such Ministers as doe the former for Legalists This is common with his followers and Iustitiaries a very grosse and absurd collection directly opposite to the preaching of the very Apostles for although it be true that neither the Law nor duties are to be pressed in a legall way to beleevers * For which see Mr. Edward Reinelds of the use of the Law yet in an Evangelicall way they both may and ought Christ being the ground of all which being layed in all doctrines and exhortations those inferences flow naturally from the same and are to be received and obeyed of every beleever for such was the Apostles method and way after matters and grounds of faith to inferre exhortations to duties and matters of practise all flowing from the same root which is Christ into whom Iohn 15.5 Sec. Tit. 3.8 whosoever is truly ingrafted he will be fruitfull through his grace guided by the word requiring and importing both aswell faith as practise and by this kind of teaching have those many thousand soules beene converted that have beene wonne unto Christ these many yeeres and not by the wild and dangerous way devised by this Seducer according to the points before discovered concerning which I may truly say as one sayd once of a gainefull but tempting calling hee was in that it was a good calling to live by but perillous to die by so is this a pleasant opinion to live by but pernitious to die by which I wish I may not prove to their cost that follow it to their end I have heard of one that much bewailed the same on his death bed to which purpose I have annexed this short admonition which I wish and desire may be no otherwise taken than it is intended that is Christianly and lovingly which the Lord grant through his grace in Christ to whom be glory for ever Amen FINIS Ecce autem alterum ¶ A Short Advertisement concerning Mr. RICE BOYE as a Paralell to the former THis Master Boye having published a very judicious peece of work about absolute prayer for temporall blessings stiled The Importunate Beggar which was fully answered to shew himselfe an importunate wrangler hee sends forth his Reply to the said answer containing a very Rhapsodie of falsities foolish retortions and groundlesse conceits full of personall defamations and detractions with little else in it which therefore to answer againe were to be like himselfe neither needs it * He puts all on a temporary faith debile fundamentum fefellit opus Only whereas hee is pleased by way of Quaere to point out his judgement in a matter of some consequence concerning the meaning of Psal 91. as if it secured all true beleevers from the Pestilence as a branch of his opinion about temporalls I am willing thereunto to returne some answer if leave may be given whereunto I submit not so much to satisfie a perverse and foolish man wedded to his owne conceits as to settle and resolve the mindes of any sincere and humble Christians that are therein doubtfull considering the uncomfortablenesse of the opinion

THE NEVV GOSPEL NOT THE TRVE GOSPEL OR A discovery of the Life and Death Doctrin and Doings of Mr. Iohn Traske and the effects of all in his Followers Wherein a mysterie of iniquity is briefly disclosed a Seducer unmarked and all warned to beware of Impostors As also a Confutation of the uncomfortable error of Mr. Boye concerning the Plague out of Psal 91. Mat. 24.11 Many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many By EDVV. NORICE LONDON Printed by R. Bishop for Henry Hood and are to be sold at his Shop in St. Dunstans Church-yard in Fleetstreet 1638. THE NEW GOSPEL NOT THE TRVE GOSPEL AS it was the care of our Lord Iesus Christ the great Shepheard of the Flock to forewarne the same in generall of all Wolves and false prophets that should arise especially in the later times and deceive many so is it a subordinate duty and no lesse needfull when such false prophets do arise in those times being espied to give particular notice of them and to point as it were with the finger unto them as St. Paul did of some such like 2 Tim. 4.15 This is hee beware of him The consideration whereof hath moved and thus farre enboldned me to tender unto publike view with submission unto allowance this briefe discovery as but the pointing with the finger of such a seducing Impostor and cunning Deceiver in our owne times I meane Mr. John Traske A man well knowne by common fame and yet not knowne according to his manifold deceits but of a few turning and winding himselfe like another Proteus into so many formes as that he could not easily be discerned to be the same individuall but descryed only by his unconstancy to be none other because therein he had not his like this man falling from one errour to another and pursuing all with equall vehemency at length fell upon a * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 13.9 new way of Evangelizing understanding the Gospell the Kingdome of Christ the state of Grace the nature of Faith as things utterly abstracted from all Law habits of Grace signes of Faith and sanctification it selfe setting up a conceited new Creature entire of himself as free from sinne as Iesus Christ to whom nothing belongeth but joy tranquillity and triumph nor to that person in whom this new Creature is formed no not though hee fell into the foulest sinnes and perpetrated the grossest impieties as murthers or adulteries or such like because these were but acted by the flesh and not at all by the new Creature in him Familisme therfore is he never to mourne or grieve for any such thing but ever to rejoyce knowing that in this estate no sinne shall hurt him neither is he to question the favour of God whatsoever hee doth that being farre worse than the sinne he committeth but ever to bee confident Into which joyfull condition all are brought only by beleeving which faith is not to be tryed by any signes fruits or effects but only by the perswasion it selfe and all this effected not by any use of the Law in preaching but only the Gospell and promises applying the same to all that so do beleeve yet not as faith is a condition of the Covenant or an instrument of Iustification laying hold on Christ but only as a qualification in themselves Whereupon all such Preachers as made any use of the Law in their teaching or gave any signes for tryall of faith or grace motives or meanes to duties rules of obedience or such like were presently rejected as Legalists Iustitiaries messengers of Moses and silly naturalists that understand not the mysterie of the Gospell * They are his own words pag. 28. yea Iewes and worse than Iewes their congregations not true but pretended Christian assemblies thereupon also his followers sequestring themselves to such as were their owne way with a high disdaine of all others gave themselves to mirth and jollity such triumphing and glorying laughter and glee Iudges 12.6 as if it were the only Shibboleth whereby to bee discerned from the miserable Legalists that held mourning and sorrow for sinne care of dutyes towards God and endeavour for sanctification by his Spirit in themselves some of them proceeding so farre as disdainfully to aske R. O. A forge of fancies what that sanctification was we talked so much of for hee knew not what it meaned which we may easily beleeve yea and to demand whether God will not accept of our prayers without the mediation of his Sonne and some of them in the mean time falling into ingemniated adulteries to the great scandall of the truth they seemed to professe yet not shewing the least remorse for the same themselves nor others in their behalfe but with this come-off in a merry manner that if a man be in Christ no sinne shall hurt him I shame to relate these things but know them to be true Now these are the effects of this mans doctrin and of his new devised Gospell but the way and course hee took in venting the same was this first hee would in publike The methode of a Seducer wheresoever hee was admitted to preach deliver ordinary truths in a plaine way but with extraordinary shew of zeale and affection thus to gaine him credit and a good esteeme of all then if any were taken with him he would in private proceed further and doctrinate them in his mysteries if they consented they were his owne if not then would he deny what he had said and beare them downe with scoffs and derision which course he also took in his conferences and disputes denying and shifting any thing he had spoken or defended when it came to any publike dislike by which meanes none or very few that dealt with him Ministers or others could escape reproach so far as the credit of his tongue extended or yet of his followers who therein have shewed themselves many of them tam moribus similes quàm voce magistro like their master in a shamelesse and unreasonable manner a taste wherof both he and they not long since yeelded when at a conference having vented many foule and erroncous points and afterwards being taxed therewith they utterly denied that any such things though many were spoken in their hearings O this very practise Master Doctor Taylor complaines in his Regula vitae pag. 63. which he sithence hath yet acknowledged in print but with such constructions and new devised interpretations as were never thought on nor imagined there yea directly against his expresse Assertions in other places turning some of them into ridles and ambiguous enunciations like Apollo's Oracles to make an evasion as hereafter God willing shall be discovered And because in his late * Published since his death as it s suspected by Mr. Boye printed pamphlet he hath not only blended the truth with his cunning head but also blasted the names of all that oppose him with reproach especially my selfe for that small discovery I

made of him I think fit to forewarne the Reader concerning the same being personall matters first that his whole Epistle to the Reader being wholly defamatory is utterly false and composed of meere fictions of his owne braine not only without any evidence but against the testimony and certain * Yea of Mr. Boye himselfe his brother in evill knowledge of thousands declaring therein his brazen forehead and raging spirit to vent any thing bee it never so untrue to serve the present turne which were it fit to mention the particulars might in few words easily be discovered the accusations being notoriously false either of them next for his succeeding Apologie wherein he utterly denies that hee was ever censured in the Starre-Chamber for Iudaisme or any matters of that kind it is as impudently false as the rest for besides a printed speech now extant of that learned Bishop Andrewes made at his censure in the Starre-Chamber the very Records of that Honourable Court concurring doe both abundantly testifie one of the principall causes of his censure there to be for Iudaizing in matters of dayes and meates for which besides other castigations hee was * Mentioned also by Dr. Sclater in his confutation of him about that time stigmatized with the letter I in the forehead for a lew which he bare to his last so that it is marveilous the man should or could bee so shamelesse as utterly to deny and that in print that hee was ever at all censured in that Court for Iudaisme or any such errors unlesse the Lord did so farre leave him to himselfe to discover thereby his impudency that in his other Assertions and protestations he might not be trusted for who that 's wise will beleeve or trust such a one as hath a heart and a forehead * Consultò cogitatò deliberatly to deny that in terminis that he well knew himselfe to be knowne in all the land and to be recorded against him Wishing therefore those that have beene the favourers and furtherers of this man and his doctrin all this while now to open their eyes and behold the deceitfulnesse of the one Their own consciences can tell them who they are and the danger of the other being both so manifest and in stead of their insolent and unworthy censures of others to smite upon the thigh and judge themselves for their sinfull levity and partiality in departing so soone from the truth they had formerly embraced and entertaining so suddenly an erroneous man branded in the Church of God for a phantastick and great abuser of the holy Scriptures also for bezelling shifting and concealing the things they heard him maintaine with their eares and know in their owne hearts to bee truly objected against him being such a way as no good cause needed neither will a good conscience ever use And because our Lord referres us much to the fruits for the discerning of false prophets upon the mention of the former I think fit to adde further concerning his practise Mat. 7.16 what I have heard from the testimony of divers persons of worth and credit that as his doctrines and opinions tend all to liberty so his practise savoured strongly of the same not Christian liberty allowed to all but carnall licentiousnesse condemned in all that professe the Gospell of Christ even the same mentioned by St. Jude when the grace of God is turned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into lasciviousnesse vers 4. for so it seemed to be with this man who in his ordinary conversation as he professed nothing but mirth and jollity so in his private carriage was he as frollike especially with that sexe in which hee most delighted towards whom hee used such familiarity with his embracings and * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Agreeable to Ovids silthy instructions and the religion of H. N. tongue fornications with such other proffers as they that were modest utterly abhorred his private society and complained thereof secretly to their friends as very foule and shamefull and how farre any of them with whom he was most conversant shared in these things themselves can best tell but what may not such be drawne unto as denie any feare of God in regard of his power and justice that disclaime the Law of God to be any rule of their lives that allow no mourning for the foulest sinnes that rest upon a bare perswasion for all their evidence of faith or grace that make mirth and joy the substance of their religion that boast how no sinne can hurt them being in Christ I say what may not such doe when occasion is offered flesh and blood will act their parts and when the understanding is so corrupt how can the affections be pure the same being wanting to season the one that should informe the other But to leave them and returne againe to their leader besides his other evill properties how mutable and unconstant he was in his doings all his life long I think not amisse in part to discover by the recitall of a certain letter written since the bruite of his death by an honest Citizen of London to his friend in the Countrey and it is thus A Letter MY love remembred hoping of your health and welfare in the Lord. T. A. meeting with me asked mee if I had seene a book of Mr. Traskes newly printed and withall desired me to help you to one and to write you two or three lines which accordingly I have done Touching the Author Mr. Traske were it not to forewarn others to take heed of by-pathes which lead to schisme and herefie I should neither write nor speak of him a word for that the man is dead and gone to give account to the highest Judge Yet in regard that though hee be dead his workes still teach and speake heresies and blasphemies they may safely all both bee spoken and written against As for Mr. Traske I have well knowne the man these full twenty yeeres at first hee was a Schoolemaster no Vniversity man only a Latine Scholler but afterwards being cast into prisons for opinions he learned and studied the Hebrew and Greek and got a smattering therof that by Indexes he could do some little matter but for zeale it was alwayes in him heady and violent that in which way he took he marched like Iehu most furiously making divisions in the Church about London and drawing in one Mr. Gr. with him to maintaine foure points differing from other Divines as namely 1. That none but such as were converted themselves could convert others 2. That one child of God might know anothers election as certainly as his own 3. That Repentance was not only begun but also finished before justifying faith 4. That none that were justifyed did commit sinne Having continued teaching these Doctrines a while hee had very many followers upon whom he obtruded the observation of the Lords day after a Iudaicall manner neither to kindle fires nor to dresse meates the which manner of

are altered 3. Whether the flat deniall of any mutation or change in the understanding will and affections be not a plaine deniall of regeneration and sanctification by the spirit and if it be why then doth he or they talke at any time of either of them as if they granted that they do not unlesse it be to colour and cloak their error with hypocrisie 4. Whether to hold and affirme that the understanding will and affections of beleevers are * See the contrary to this 1 Cor. 13.9 ad finem 2 Cor. 3.18 Phil. 3.12 1 Thes 3.12 c. perfect as also their faith love joy and other gifts and that such themselves are as perfect here as ever they shall be is not directly to oppose the Scriptures and all truth yea to contradict himselfe who saith we do alwaies grow in faith and love and answerable fruits for that which is already perfect can have no bettering or what need have such of the imputed righteousnes of Christ of which these men talke so much if they have perfection of all things in themselves for to the old man it must not be applyed and the new man is perfect already so they overthrow the maine grounds and Articles of Christian Religion and put by any need of Christ himselfe Now the Lord deliver all his people from such pernitious and damnable opinions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Pet. 2.1 more exceptions might bee taken at this rotten familisticall treatise but its irkesome to pore on it any further therefore I passe on 12. ASSERTION Beleevers when they fall into any sin be it adultery or murther are not to mourne or grieve for that savours of the flesh but still to rejoyce because it is written rejoyce evermore and that joy is the speciall means to bring them out of their sin Explication HEre is another parcell of worthy doctrine delivered vivâ voce at a conference and acknowledged for the words to be his own standing out to maintain them only hee gives us here forsooth a sense to understand the words by which is that by sorrow and mourning hee intends worldly sorrow and desperate mourning for sin that beleevers are not so to mourne but to retaine still some hope in Christ and this he saith was all he affirmed at the conference but that his words are perverted which if it be so then hath he doubtlesse great wrong done to him but if it be not so then is he a great lyar and Seducer both Now for the proofe of this not only the witnesses present can testifie but the passages themselves do shew that we professedly maintained godly sorrow for sinne but when hee with ingeminations denyed all sorrow whatsoever there was produced against him first Eccl. 3.4 there is a time to mourn and then that of Peter who went out and wept bitterly Luk. 22.62 the former he shifted with his wit to the later hee replyed that it was an instance that fell not out in an age so that the question was not about the kind of sorrow but of sorrowing at all which he opposed and we maintained but farre was it from the thoughts of any of us to maintain worldly or desperate sorrow for sin then the reason that he gave for his opinion was that we are bid to rejoyce evermore 1 Thes 5.16 and that joy will bring a man best out of his sinne this is the substance of what was said about this point Therefore hath this man done wickedly in seeking to cast the shame of his errours upon others shifting cleane from what he maintained to a point of an other kind for the colouring of which collusion he falls on with a long invective against Ministers in generall VVhat made Saul Achitophel and Iudas destroy themselves was it Legal teaching for pressing so much humiliation and sorrow for sinne as the cause of so many selfe murthers and mischiefes among men terming them Legalists and their congregations pretented Christian Assemblies yea Iewish and worse than Iewish Synagogues with much to that effect Wherein if any are faulty I am not to defend it the grace of Christ is surely to be published plainly Mark 16 1● Acts 2.39 and plentifully to the people and the threatnings to bee seconded with the promises to work true repentance in the hearts of men else I beleeve a Minister doth but the least part of his message and the work may prosper accordingly But what is that to this Seducer or how is he to be beleeved in this case who denies any use of the Law at all any terrours or feare of judgements any mourning or sorrow for sinne any thing tending to humiliation only faith and joy is that he stands for in a Gospel Minister Is his testimony to be received against all Ministers in generall without exception is * Being the way of the false prophet and false Apostles his way to bee observed in an extreamity of farre more dangerous consequence for without all mourning and sorrow for sinne what need is there of the comforts of the Gospel what applying of Christ at all who came only to comfort the mourners Isai 61.1 2 3. and calls such unto him as travell and are heavy laden Mat. 11.28 yea in the regenerate themselves that fall into sinne this is required Psal 51.17 and the holy Scriptures commend this unto the Saints for ever as that which worketh repentance to salvation 2 Cor. 7.10 how sinfull then is this mans doctrine and pernitious to the soules of men who denies all sorrowing for the foulest crimes teaching men to impute it only to the old man in them and not to themselves when they fall into wickednesse but there is more remaining 13. ASSERTION Carelesse Christians are the choisest beleevers because they depend wholly upon Christ Explication THis Assertion may be known by his livery to whom he belongs even the carelesse master we last mentioned who like himselfe would have all his followers to be carelesse also and they are his choise beleevers who ever prescribed such rules of loosenesse for men to live by unlesse it were Epicurus himselfe the chiefe of Libertines but it is worse in this man in that he seekes to ground them on faith and the rules of the Gospell for thus he tells us that carelesse is here taken in a holy sense belonging only to those that depend on Christ because they will not bee negligent in the use of the meanes which clause he saith should have beene added to his Assertion to which I answer that the English word carelesse cannot properly be so taken seeing it signifieth with us a regardlesse mind not heeding or esteeming such or such a matter and is generally taken in the worst sense as when we say a carelesse man we intend one that regards not his manner of life Like Gallio in the Iewes matters Acts 18.17 or a carelesse Christian one that regards not Christian duties in which generall sense he takes it as comprehending